USA U-23s vs. Canada: Match Night Commentary

The U.S. Men's Under-23 national team returns to action tonight in CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying with a showdown against Canada (7pm, Universal Sports Network/mun2).

The Americans opened the tournament with a resounding 6-0 victory against Cuba, while Canada struggled through a scoreless draw with El Salvador. A victory against Canada would automatically qualify the United States for the tournament semifinals. A win tonight would also mean the United States could clinch first place in Group A with a draw against El Salvador on Monday.

The United States made two changes to the lineup that faced Cuba, with Juan Agudelo out of the tournament with a torn meniscus suffered in the Cuba match. Teal Bunbury will replace Agudelo and take on the same country he once represented on the youth level. Jorge Villafana replaces Kofi Sarkodie in the U.S. lineup.

SBI will be providing live commentary on tonight's match so please feel free to follow along here. As always, you are welcome to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

Interesting to see that Porter keeps Gyau on the bench in the last few matches. I wonder if he’s been off his game or something. I would love for him to make his way into the match in the second half, he’s talented and I think would mix well with Adu and Shea

Wow, #2 (Opara?) pulled up to make the offside trap and still had the burst to get back in position by the time the offside was whistled. That was impressive, esp from USA where the offside trap is often a tricky proposition. Great timing and athleticism.

We are up for a huge disappointment with this team. They are showing college soccer at best… No clever passes forward, only lateral and back, lack of attacking ideas. Dixx Misskerud, Much Adu about nothing, etc.

Very poor performance, team is slow of foot and mind. Valentin and Adu are the only ones awake. Shea should come out for complaining and not playing. Opara should come out for poor play. Gyau, Boyd, and defender needed.

He’s getting hacked a lot and not getting a call. His touch is on tonight and he’s physically dominating out there (boy does that sound wrong), I think he’s been one of the better players out there overall.

Good tight game so far. USA is trying to play the beautiful game, but there is no space in midfield for diskerud and corona to get the one-two going. Canada is playing tight defense. Plus, looks to me the USA’s been instructed – all balls played out of the back, no direct balls over the mids.

Hard to tell. A torn meniscus generally is not nearly as serious or painful as a ligament tear in the knee, and its entirely possible that he picked up what he thought was a slight knock and just played through it..happens all the time.

I was thinking the same thing.
Unfortunately, it’s not going to take a Jose Mourhino to realize that Adu’s best move is a stepover, come inside and blast the ball at goal from 25 yards. To be fair, without Agudelo moving off the ball, Adu doesn’t have many options once he cuts inside.

Playing back passes is not the beautiful game. We need the team to push forward possesing in the attacking third not forcing the ball backwards where we panic. Not good enough especially from the midfielders i have heard are good enough for the first team

Shea should have been benched. Gyau on the left and Corona in the mid. Porter trying to experiment in this match is dissapointing. SMH…. Corona comes out and the show disssapears. Gyau & Adu work well with Corona & Mix.

Agreed. Is Corona injured? If not, that sub is inexcusable. Not taking Shea off? Okugo for Jeffrey instead of another attacking option? Admittedly, the blame mostly falls on Hamid for that horrid goalkeeping, but I still question a lot of Porter’s choices today. Would be a nightmare if we don’t qualify for the olympics (especially after tha U-20 nightmare last year).

As bad as USA has been, the most award for most truly awful performance has to be reserved for the CONCACAF.com announcer who is obsessed with his attempt to completely butcher the pronunciation of every single name in his program. Terence Body?? Really?? Joe J-Wow? Does he think he’s watching the Jersey Shore?

Disgraceful garbage on the part of the US team. Absolutely embarrassing. Porter should never coach at this level again. He should stick to coaching college where they play once a week at most. Out played, out hustled and out coached.
We’ll be lucky to get into the semi-finals, but will lose to Mexico. Fantastic.

As bad as USA has been. Let’s be careful not to place too much on the performance of one match while playing 3 games in 5 days. It’s a ridiculous and odd format. It’s not at all surprising that some of these youngsters simply did not come out with the fire and focus you would hope for given the importance of the occasion.

Quit trying to play the ball to the corners.. you are an amazingly underskilled team, and it just looks ridiculous… Enough with the diving and rolling around on the pitch… no one cares.. Who knows some USL or MLS scouts may be there. LOL….

Porter a disappointment. Should’ve started Gyau and Boyd from the beginning. Shea was underwhelming. The team was not properly motivated. It was plain for all to see – the US underestimated their opponent and it cost them.

Great win for Canada. They had more energy and skill. Comparing USA performances, the USA team must have partied the night before. Canada took time away from both Mix and Jeffrey, then stripped them. Both Canada goals to USA defensive errors, Hamid tries to catch a corner at his chest, Opara slips down on the second.
Mexico will destroy this team if they meet again.

Well-thought analysis. You’re one of those people who thinks progress is linear, young players and coaches don’t mature, and good teams don’t lose, aren’t you? I have a name for people like that, but I try not to use it on public forums.

For all the talk about Barcelona and “taking the game to the opposition”, your team couldn’t complete three passes in a row tonight. Looks like they have been reading too much of their press. Oh, and here’s a suggestion – take another look in the manual about how to defend set pieces. And stop calling Hans Backe.

Have fun against Mexico to make it to the Olympics, while we enjoy 1st place in the group and a trip to London.

Those of you who said Shea is a better attacker than Gyau, well, you have just witnessed that he lacks a bit with or without Corona and Mix running the show. Gyau once again the few touches he was able to get he almost created something out of nothing. Gyau should have half moer touches than he did. Unfortunately there wasn’t a Corona for him in the middle.

Porter’s tactics failed miserably. This wasn’t the game to try a Shea and Gyau in the corners. Especially if you are only going to distribute the ball to Gyau 4-5 times. Gyau and Adu should have been the attacker on the wing with Corona and Mix running the show.

We lost to Canada. Embarrassing. We were the team that went out there looking for the game, and lost to a Canadian team who decided they were going to wait for the counter. SMH.

It looks like the US will now have to win a one-off against Mexico to earn a trip to the olympics. Canada is virtually guaranteed to beat Cuba meaning they finish with 7 points. Even if we beat El Salvador, the most points we can get now is 6. So we will finish 2nd at best and thus have to play the winner of the other group, which will almost definitely be Mexico.

Corona speaks perfect English. What are you talking about? Don’t forget that most Latinos in this country speak two Languages in the household. Most of us can’t dominate two languages at the same time perfectly.

The Canadian team had 7 new players put in for this match from the El Salvador one. I think Porter mis-judged what was needed. He probably thought to put the best possible lineup out against Canada, get the win and then rest players for the El Salvador game. In hindsight, he should have used many more fresh players for this game.

Lots big words being thrown around here tonight not to mention all the knee jerking and overreactions. USA had a bad game Really bad. The first half looked ok and looked like they could turn it around in the second. Of course they came out even worse. Mistakes were made by both coach and players but I believe the best teams learn from these experiences. And after all that sometimes a good butt kicking loss is the best lesson for a tired team.

Seriously, be careful what you wish for. The best case scenario would be for Mexico to also fall somewhere and then face Canada. We need our best in the olympics. I truly believe Mexico beats us if we play them again.

It’s not an excuse, just common sense. You shouldn’t read too much into any single performance especially for young kids who are bound to be inconsistent and especially in this format. I understand the need to vent but some of the trashing I have read is kind of ridiculous. I am still very high on a lot of these kids and the coach. I am certainly disappointed but the talent level is still a solid step up from the last generation, I think.

Thanks for the info. I did not realize. Would it have killed him to read a couple articles on the teams beforehand, though? Too bad there isn’t any way for you to access information from your computer, something like an interconnected net of computers where people could share data and information, hmmmmm?

Why would I trash Shea in regards to the Mexican game. I was sitting right behind Hamid, I didn’t see Shea on the left…. Hhhmmm, I wonder why I didn’t see Shea on the pitch.SMH

I did bash Shea in regards to his play against Cuba. His two assist didn’t do anything for me. It was decent play against a weak team. I’m not impressed. I said Gyau should have started on the left. He by far is superior to Shea in all aspects of the game as of now.

You are not nearly as good as you think you are. Actually, you are quite ordinary and your players are extremely overrated by your own fans. Your coach is not a tactical genius. Trying to play like Barcelona is embarrassing for you, you cant pull it off with your crappy, unskilled players.